She said: "Come home. Please come home. That is all we want. Use the keys that you took, that you were adamant you found before you left, and come home."

Mrs Pennington spoke to her daughter for the first time since she disappeared in a brief phone call yesterday evening.

She had been upstairs when her daughter rang to assure her and her husband Stephen, 43, that she was OK.

Mrs Pennington said: "I cannot tell you the relief. It was fantastic. My husband took the initial call and Shevaun asked to speak to me. I was upstairs, so came running down.

"She said she was well. I asked her where she was. She would not tell me. I was just telling her not to worry about anything. She was not in any trouble.

"We just want her back safe and sound."

Mrs Pennington said the whole family, including her elder sister, was "totally devastated" because her disappearance was so out of character.

"I trusted her," she said. "I had no reason not to trust her. Her character has been of that nature. She never gave me reason not to trust her. She has never been in any trouble and she is a very responsible child."

She reiterated that Shevaun would not be in any trouble for disappearing and just looked forward to giving her daughter a huge hug.

She said the first thing she would do when she saw her daughter was to tell her that she loves her. "The first thing I want is a hug," she said.

After that, the family could take it day by day and Mrs Pennington was sure they could sort out any problems.

In the meantime, her friends were missing her and looking forward to her coming home so they could play tennis with her.

She added that the family have been planning to buy two pet rabbits following the death of Shevaun's gerbil.

They had also been looking forward to going on holiday in November, the first time her parents had planned to take Shevaun out of school to go away.

"Everybody is just waiting. We just want her back," Mrs Pennington said.